|
At the time of this writing (12/24/2004) we have now lived
in the Disney area for almost 3 weeks and we have been out exploring the
various Disney outlet stores and various other Disney area shopping
experiences. This article does not include Downtown Disney because we have
covered DD in other areas of this site. This article is in no way complete,
I have been spotting Disney outlets all over the place but they seem to be
fly-by-night and not worth mentioning here.
First lets discuss the Disney Outlets (other area malls at the bottom):
Belz Factory Outlet World
2 Disney outlets in one mall? Yep!
Web address:
http://www.belz.com/factory/locations/orlando/orlando_layout.html
Phone Store #1 (Character Premiere): 407-354-3255
Phone Store #2 (Character Warehouse): 407-345-5285
Both stores had pretty much the same stuff at the same
prices but they both had a few items the other did not. Most of the prices
were pretty decent averaging about 1/2 off the sticker price. Most of the
items are from last year or from the previous holiday. Example: most of the
clothing had 2004 on them (we are nearly in 2005) and some of other stuff
was from Thanksgiving which has just pasted. There was however some other
products such as picture frames, coffee mugs and posters etc. that had no
bearing on holiday or year.
Getting to this outlet was a bit of nightmare because
of traffic on International Drive but we also went in the middle of
Christmas shopping buzz but if you intend on going be aware you could spend
the better part of the day just getting here, shopping and then returning to
WDW. I suggest making this your half day destination especially if you
get into Orlando midday on first day. Buy your souvenirs here and save a
bundle.
Orlando Premium Outlets
Web address:
http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/store_listing.asp?id=17
Phone (Disney's Character Premiere): 407-477-022
Bigger than the stores at Belz but less to offer,
mostly clothing and the prices are about the same. The big advantage to this
store is it's location very near Downtown Disney.
Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores
Web address:
http://www.lbvfs.com/
Phone (Mall info): 407-238-9301
This location also offers a Character Outlet store which is very similar
to the other locations. This location seems to also sell very different
items as compared to the other stores.
Click here for coupon to use at this location!
Now lets discuss the other area malls:
The Mall at Millenia
Web Address:
http://www.mallatmillenia.com/html/
Phone: 407-363-355
Beautiful Mall, large, lots of parking but not worth
the trip in my opinion.
Unless your name is Rockefeller, Carnegie or Trump you
won't find much interest in the highly over priced stores here. Our first
trip to this mall was our first and last. Every store here is either a
specialty store or a high end designer store, no kidding! For example
there is A Discovery Channel Store and a Sony Style store that are both
pricing goods above retail and you can buy many of the same products at the
Circuit City or the Super Target across the street for about 1/2 what they
are selling it for! We felt terribly uncomfortable in almost every shop we
went into... this excursion would be a complete waste of time for many of
the users/visitors that use this site, this however may not apply to you so
check out their website and decide for yourself.
Traffic was horrible here and it's partially to blame
on the ridiculous way the streets were setup and to further aggravate things
there was only one right turn lane from the I-4 east bound exit which was
backed up for at least a 30 minute wait!
Florida Mall
Web Address:
http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=139
Phone: 407-851-6255
This mall is more along the lines of a traditional
mall, stores that the average American middle income family can afford but
not worth a special trip for those of you on vacation.
Summary
The Orlando area is waste land of theme parks and
shopping complexes, yes I realize that I sound a bit scorned or harsh but
it's the truth! Every turn will yield another shopping complex and
everything is super sized, I have yet to find a regular Target or Wal-Mart
and everything shopping complex offers a run down kiosk offering discount
tickets, if I have to tell the guy in front of my local 7-Eleven that I
don't need tickets one more time I will not be held responsible for my
actions!
I hope this information has aided at least one person
to avoid some of the shopping pitfalls in the WDW/Orlando area.
Happy Shopping
--Michael
|
